28-SEP-2006
Rutting elk, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2006
Autumn brings the rutting season to Yellowstone’s elk. Males attempt to corral harems of cows, battle other elk for dominance, and mate whenever they can. In this image, a huge male brings all of his energy to the task – and I may well have caught the very moment in time that a new life begins. The male is moving so quickly that he is blurred at 1/80th of a second, lending even more energy and urgency to the moment. The cow seems resigned, and once mating begins, she never moved. This herd had taken over the lawns in the center of the village of Mammoth Hot Springs. Young elk are grazing in the background of this image. I made this image a few yards from our hotel. Rangers made us keep our distance for our own safety. As a result, I used a long 280mm telephoto focal length for this shot.
30-SEP-2006
Watering hole, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 2006
This female moose is beautifully positioned for photography. The early morning light was coming from the side, abstracting her body, yet rimming it with light, and causing the water pouring out her mouth to seem translucent. The sun also catches the autumn colors of the reeds and grasses, making them brilliant reddish orange. We spent about fifteen minutes with this moose while she drank her fill. Of all the images I made of her (and I made about 50) this one seizes the most expressive moment in time. Her body is turned slightly away from me, yet I can see all of her. She steps forward into the water, making a small splash with her left front foot. A steady flow of drops pour from her mouth – moose don’t swallow all they take. Her ears are up and alert. On the underside of her rear leg, we can see the glow of reflected reddish light from the sun bouncing off the reddish grasses. Her head leads us directly in to the mass of golden plants just across the water, as well as their reflection. If I had had asked her to pose for this shot, she could not have done better for me. A moment in time such as this one comes along once every few years for any given photographer. To receive two such moments in time (this and the rutting elk image) within just two days was very unusual and much appreciated.
10-JUL-2006
World’s largest dream-catcher, Meteor City, Arizona, 2006
50,000 years ago, a meteor slammed into the desert not far from Winslow, Arizona. Tourists visiting it crater via the now abandoned Route 66 would often stop at this trading post, built in 1938. Still in business, it has the world's largest dream-catcher looming high over the speeding traffic on Interstate 40. A pair of special Route 66 flags commemorating its route from Chicago to Los Angles flanks the dream catcher. The wind roars across the open desert here with such ferocity that these flags are soon reduced to tatters. I wanted to get them to stand straight out against the rich clouds in the background. I made this image at 1/500th of a second, insuring that the flags would be frozen in mid flight.
11-JUN-2006
Ebb and flow, Bandon Beach, Oregon, 2006
The ebb and flow of the evening waves create a mysterious, glowing mist as they wash ashore on Bandon Beach. I have never made an image such as this before, so had to do some experimentation. I made it just after ten in the evening with almost no light. Using my lowest ISO to minimize noise, I wound up shooting this with a self-timer, a 15 second time exposure, and my smallest lens opening (f/8). Amazingly, it worked. The ocean shimmers and moves through both space and time.
06-APR-2006
Invisible encounter, Guilin, China, 2006
Like two ships that pass in the night, these pedestrians slip past each other, yet they offer no acknowledgments whatsoever. Not even a nod. And nobody else was in sight to spoil this moment. I have stopped time to take normal behavior out of context and make it incongruous. I was riding in a car at the time, and we were stopped for a traffic light. I could see both of these people walking towards each other. I knew I had enough time to wait for them to get within less than a foot of each other – traffic lights in China often have a countdown feature. As you can see, I made this image with plenty of time to spare – it would be eighteen seconds before we had to get moving again. Using a shutter speed of 1/400th of a second, I rolled down the window and was able to stop each of these people in their tracks, their feet only inches apart.
14-MAR-2006
Rush hour, Beijing, China, 2006
I made this image at a busy intersection. I find that when people are moving in several different directions at once I am most likely to find incongruous relationships I can freeze forever in an eye blink of time. The light has changed and bicycle traffic is already moving towards and away from me. Yet a man in a hurry has come flying across the street just behind these cyclists, running against a red light. My 420mm telephoto lens has compressed the distance behind them, creating a tunnel out of the trees that arch over the street. I have stopped the man in full stride with only one heel on the ground. He hangs in space between two people, clearly defined against the street with no background mergers to slow his flight. As in the previous image, none of these people seem to notice each other. They move at their own pace and for their own purpose. The unique ability of a camera to stop time has made ordinary behavior into extraordinary expression.
07-FEB-2006
Under the Waterfall, Lower Emerald Pool, Zion National Park, Utah, 2006
By standing behind this waterfall at Zion's Lower Emerald Pool, I was able to portray the flow of water flying past my camera in an extended form. They appear here as a curtain of speeding droplets. I used a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second to achieve this effect. The image required more than a rain of water to make it express meaning. I include a diagonal branch for context. It makes the waterfall droplets appear to moving even faster.
03-NOV-2005
Top of the Hill, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2005
Sometimes a moment in time presents itself by accident. My intention was to make a picture of the incredible tangle of utility wires at the crest of a street that ran almost straight uphill. I was using my longest telephoto focal length – 420mm -- to outline that tangle against the sky, and contrast it to the abstract simplicity of the sharply sloping street in deep shadow below it. Suddenly people started coming into my viewfinder. A young man came running down the hill into the shadows. Another man came up the hill and turned toward his house. And most important, a woman surmounted the crest of the hill, pulling a toddler along with her. He was dragging a bag along the ground, and her hair was flying in the air. I made this image at 1/800th of second, fast enough to freeze all of this action at once. And I still was able to use those wonderful wires, the parked cars, and the heavily shadowed cobblestone street, as context.
07-SEP-2005
Deluge, Plitvice National Park, Croatia, 2005
At first glance, this photograph reminds me of a rainstorm battering a mountain valley. But it’s not. This is the impact point of the Big Slap, the highest waterfall in Plitvice National Park. The Plitvica River plunges 250 feet over a cliff, and this is where it lands. The amount of water may vary by season, but it always makes a big splash when it strikes bottom. I was able to get fairly close to this point, needing only about 100mm of telephoto reach to fill my frame. I used a medium shutter speed of 1/250th of a second to extend each drop of water into a streak of flying liquid. The grasses bend under the weight of the deluge, while the huge rocks become miniature waterfalls in themselves. This image harnesses a moment in time expressing the fury and force of nature in all of its energy.
18-JUN-2005
Cascade, near Leiden, The Netherlands, 2005
A fast flowing but modest amount of water flowing over a small sculpted figure in a Dutch fountain becomes a cascade of blurred liquid, creating an expressively emotional yet abstract image. I used a medium telephoto focal length to make this intimate image at close range without getting wet. The shutter speed of 1/125th of a second keeps the figure’s face sharp, yet the water’s pattern and rate of flow translates into torrents of smeared blur at that shutter speed. The image acquires the flavor of an abstract painting layered in heavy strokes, which intensifies the feeling of action and movement I was looking for.
On the Fa Ngum, Vientiane, Laos, 2005
A Vientiane commuter roars past a display of umbrellas on the city's Fa Ngum, a road that runs along the Mekong River. I was able to blur the cyclist even at the very fast shutter speed of 1/500th of a second, because of the angle at which I made the picture. When a subject is moving very fast at right angles to the camera it will show blur in some way at even very fast shutter speeds. (Slower shutter speeds can show even more blur, but under these conditions, the camera I was using would not allow me to go much slower than 1/250th of a second, which probably would not have added a significant amount of additional blur to heighten the illusion of speed.) The key to the motion expressed in this image is the contrast in definition between the sharp umbrellas and blurred cyclist. I was fortunate that she was wearing a loose jacket that was blowing behind her, and that she picked up her hand to keep her hair out of her face at the moment of exposure. Both bring a sense of additional movement to this image, as does the flow of pattern in the two umbrellas behind the motorbike.
Bathing at Mahangandhayon Monastery. Amarapura, Myanmar, 2005
A tub of cold water, a pot, and a bar of soap are the essentials for a monk's daily bath. But the bath itself is more than just tools. To make an effective image of the bath, we must somehow express the essence of bathing. I chose to stress the energy this monk brings to his daily bath. I did it by using the fast shutter speed of 1/1000th of second to stop the action as he doused himself with water. The droplets of water hang in space, exploding from the pot onto his body. The stains on the wall behind echo the pattern of the drops suspended in space by the camera’s shutter. By using the camera to stop time in this manner, we not only can express the essence of this bath, but also show a common act in an uncommon way. The camera can see in ways that our eyes can’t. One of those ways is stopping time in its tracks.